Happy Birthday Franco!

Today is my husband's 28th Birthday! Franco's friend Matt is staying with us while he looks for a job and apt. here in town (probably worth another blog post for my feelings on this), so last night I cooked him a big spaghetti and meatball dinner and made him his favorite dessert--Carrot Cake. Him and his friend went out to a bar afterwards and I stayed home with Mimi. The recipe I used came out so moist and delicious! Here's a link to the Recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx
I substituted 3/4 cup canola + 1/2 cup applesauce instead of the oil amount they suggested,I added a few more spices (more nutmeg/cinnamin type spices) I also added 1 cup crushed pineapple with the juice squeezed out, and I added a couple tablespoons of pineapple to the icing instead of vanilla. If you like carrot cake give this one a try. Now that I've been making cakes from scratch each time I hate eating cakes from a box. I'm become a cake snob, geesh I know. I aslo made some really good chocolate drop cookies, I found the recipe in Marth Stuart's Magazine, I guess she has a cookbook of just cookies and this was a sample of the recipes, the came out great and were very chocolatey and delicious! I'll post the recipe if anyone is interested.

So I let my husband sleep in, Mimi fell asleep last night at 11, and she woke up at 7:35, which I'm cool with. She's been sleeping through the night (8-9) hours consistently now with 2 long naps in the day as well. Tonite I have a babysitter coming over that I hired last week and we're all going out for dinner and drinks with 10 or so friends. That is all F wanted to do for his birthday was go out for drinks.

My friend Grace thinks i'm crazy for leaving Mimi with a babysitter that I just met. I posted an ad on this site called Sittercity (sittercity.com), and then 20 or girls responded to my ad. You can go and check their profiles with contain info about them, their experience with kids, their preferences (# of kids, pet friendly, rate they charge, etc), and then their contact info. I spoke to 3 of them on the phone then had each of them come over to meet me and Mimi for an hour or so. I'm going to have each of them babysit once and see how it goes. Then I'll probably pick a fav. I think I know who my fav is already, but I'm gonna give each girl a chance. Most of them are nursing majors from the local college.

Well, everything else is going pretty well. We're getting into a good routine, Franco is a fabulous father and great at taking care of little Mi, the weather is finally cooling down. This month is so busy, F is going to San Franciso for a week for work, we're going to Portland for my brother's graduation from culinary school, and Matt is living with us in our tiny house! Busy Busy. I still have those last stubborn 5 lbs, but I haven't really had time to work out, hopefully I'll make time in schedule for that now that I don't get interupted sleep at night.

I'm going to do a video soon of Mimi's nursery and some products I like and products I think are a waist of money.

Thanks to everyone that reads and comments.

Infants and Television

I am so happy I shut off my cable two years ago. I'm happy for several reasons...
1. I don't waste 4 or more hours of my day on my ass in front of my TV anymore
2. We save 1200 dollars a year on not paying for cable.
3. I actually enjoy sitting and watching a movie now, because I don't do it that often.
4. My child won't grow up with a television on in the background ALL THE TIME

I can't stand people who throw their infant in front of the television. A child under 2 shouldn't watch television, and children over 2 should only watch 30 minutes or less of TV a day. I can't tell you how many people I've babysat for that use their television as a babysitter. I don't want my kids growing up addicted to television, eating in front of the television, etc. My opinion on this is shaped by own experience as child, where I watched TV from the time I got home from school until when I went to bed. I ate my meals in front of a television as well. I think that these habits in part contributing to some of my issues with food, including mindless eating and compulsive finishing, and also my level of inactivity as a young adult, all of which contributed to my overweight status.

Turn off the TV, take your kid outside for a walk.

My little chatty Cathy :-)

My little Mi is over 2 months and almost 14 lbs!! Holy crap. She's doing great. This weekend has been so amazing. Saturday morning we all woke up and played in bed together. She is staying up so much longer now. In the mornings she is so rested and happy, she makes faces and plays around for hours. It is so nice to have my husband home with us on the weekends. She's holding her head up amazingly and getting really strong. She is vocalizing so much more now, i'll post a video of her being chatty last night.

F and I went to see the Gators play again yesterday. We kicked Tennessee's little orange and white butts! It's funny, the University sent out an email to tell fans to wear Blue (we are Orange and Blue), because TN's colors are orange and white. It was hella hot at the stadium. The student section isn't shaded, so we sat in the sun from 3pm-7pm, needless to say we forgot sunscreen! Oops! We look like tourists with our sunglass tan lines now. Our friends Christy and Ashley watched Mimi for us, they claim she was an angel, thank god, I always pray that she's not being "Mimi the Miserable" for other people, when she gets like that nursing is really the only calming thing.

Breastfeeding is still going really well. For a mostly-nursed baby, I feel like i'm always sterilizing bottles! She gets my frozen milk via the bottle when I'm away or need a break. I use a Medela double electric breastpump, which seems to work really well. I can pump 8-10 ounces in about 5 minutes. My friend used the Medela Swing, which is the single (less powerful I think) electric breastpump. She didn't have the same speedy pumping I have, don't know if it was her supply issues, or a weaker pump, but mine works great. Sometimes I think I have overactive letdown because if she unlatched my milk will spray her in the face, nice eh? I continue to be thankful that breastfeeding is comfortable for both of us and that I have an adequate supply. I generally have about 20 bags of milk (4-5oz) in the freezer. I'm also really thankful to not have to buy formula!

Going to school while taking care of Mimi almost full time has been really stressful. I constantly feel like i"m playing catch-up and constantly feel like I;m letting someone down in some way. Next semester will be easier, I am only TAing one class. I envy mom's who can stay home full time and still have adequate finances. I get to stay home with Mi, but I have to work while i'm at home writing and taking online classes and I leave for one class on T/TH. People always ask me, is it hard taking care of her? and I say--no, taking care of her is not too difficult, it's taking care of her AND going to school AND teaching AND writing my dissertation that is hard. Mimi is a good baby and a joy to be around, even when she' "Mimi the Miserable."

I love her more and more and more everyday! I love watching her grow and change and we're enjoying every minute. She's out of her 0-3 month clothes so it's kind of fun putting her new stuff on her.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments. Ask is you have any questions!

Bye

She's Gaining, I'm Losing!

Hey Guys,

I put this cute sleeper on Mimi today before bed and realized it is the last time she'll probably wear it! Her feet hung about 3 inches out of the bottom of the feet! Good thing they are footless jammies! I can't belive that she's two months old this wednesday.

I had kind of a scare today, I woke up with a really sore throat and feeling really run down. I thought, oh no, I must have caught a bug being on campus or something, hopefully not swine flu! I quickly too my temperature, which was normal and was careful not to kiss the baby at all today. That made me so sad, one of the best things is kissing her fat little face. I was even more diligent with hand washing, which I wash my hands so much as it is that my skin is dry and cracking on my hands--which shouldn't happen in the middle of summer in FL! Hopefully it was just a scratchy throat from the fan blowing on my face at night and my asthma meds. I'm going to keep taking my temperature and avoid kissing her fat little face I guess for awhile.

I have only gotten to go running twice in the last week and a half. It's really hard to get out of the house to run while F is with her when it's not 90 degrees out. I guess I should start going to the gym. They have a free daycare at our gym for babies 6 weeks and older. It looks very clean and well staffed, but with the number of cases of this H1N1 flu in our city I think it's best to just leave her at home with F and get to the gym alone when I can or run on the track.

Breastfeeding continues to go pretty well, I had some pains in my breasts today and thought maybe the run down feeling I have in conjunction with the breast pain might be mastitis, but I don't have fever or any redness. My supply is dropping back a little, which is nice because before I would leak a lot and wake up at night saturated in breastmilk. Now I seem to produce what she needs plus an extra bottle or maybe two bottles (4-5 oz) a day. That is fine with me. I have over 20 bags of milk (4-5 oz) bags in the freezer now. I try to replace what bottles get used each day, plus pump with the medela pump one more bottle at least for backup. I just want to have enough extra milk so that if I had to take a medication or something that wasn't safe for breastmilk Mimi could still get exclusively breastmilk.

I think breastfeeding really helps with weightloss. Still have 5 lbs left to lose to my pre pregnancy weight, which I think is awesome for 8 weeks. I am happy with my progress so far. I hope to continue to lose past that weight because I was a little overweight before becoming pregnant.

This week was a really hard week. I'm getting really overwhelmed with schoolwork, housework and staying home with Mimi. I had a little breakdown about it today with my husband. He reminded me this is the last semester I have to take any classes and next semester will be better. He's right, just need to make it through the next few months.

Hope all is well, congrats to Courtney and her little baby Sophie! She's adorable! Can't wait to hear how her birth went.

7 Weeks Old

Hey Guys,

Wow, my little Mimi is 7 weeks old and a whopping 13 lbs. Can you believe that? That means she has gained 1lb a week for the last 4 weeks. This seems a little too fast. I think the Dr. told us she should gain 1 oz a day, so that should be about 1/2 lb a week. Am I over feeding? Or is she just a big girl? She has been receiving breastmilk exclusively, both from nursing and from a bottle. I've noticed with bottle feeding, she will actually stop eating and purse her lips shut when she's full, and with nursing, she'll get disinterested and stop actively eating when she is full. Also, when she's full from breastfeeding she won't fuss if you remove her from the breast. So I guess she is normal as far as weight. I'm 5'10" and so if my husband. My husband is an average weight, and if you've followed my posts before, you know i'm a little overweight. Mimi is also growing out of some of her 0-3 months clothes :-( This kind of makes me sad, she's growing so fast.

Speaking of the weight....I only have 5.5 lbs left to lose! (to reach my pre-preggo weight). I have started running again, I've run twice, but I walked 2 miles the with the baby the days I did not run. I cut 30 seconds of my mile the 2nd time I ran too. My husband says i'm looking slimmer, but I think he's just buttering me up because he wants sex, lol. That might be too much info for you, but If you've had a baby and know how exhausted you are you can imagine how uninterested you would be in sex.

One last thought of the day...

Did you ever have friends that you kind of force a friendship with? You know you have them over and you have forced polite conversation, they have you over etc., but it never just happens naturally? The conversation feels too polite and forced and you find yourself holding back your comments because you don't have a very open friendship with these people? My husband had a classmate from one of his grad classes come over for dessert last night. What possessed him to invite people over in the middle of the week during "Mimi the Miserable" time is beyond me....so this couple just moved around the corner from us and stopped by at 9pm for dessert. Luckily Mimi was pretty chill, otherwise the situation would have been worse. They had some drinks and I had made a pie, and we sat at the table and had forced polite conversation. The guy is a nice enough guy but kind of full of himself, and the girlfriend seems sweet, but really doesn't have much to talk about. They kept saying, "when do you guys want to come over!? tomorrow? this weekend?" and we were like "yeah we'll have to come by soon and see your place." It really seemed they wanted to be friends with us more than us with them...so do we keep doing the polite forced friendship and see if it grows into something? I mean I'm not really looking to make new buddies, I barely get to spend time with friends after having the baby anyway. Anyone else know what i'm talking about?

Mimi has her 2 month dr. apt next week I think, and she's getting shots. We purposely picked this dr. because they let you spread out the shots if your baby isn't in daycare. So I'm not sure exactly what shots she'll get. Also I'm not sure whether to give her a flu shot or not. Any opinions on flu shots for 2 month olds? I'm going to get one because i'm on campus a lot and I ride the bus to campus.

Leave a comment if you have a story about forced friendships or vaccines or anything. I'd like to know what others think.

Weight, Running and of course GO GATORS!

Hey guys,

I love that my husband has off on Monday, it means that I will be able to get some work done with little Mimi having daddy to play with too!

So this weekend marks two firsts--It was the first time I have gone running since I was 5 months pregnant, and it was my first Gators Game! I have been a season ticket holder for the last two years, but sold my tickets to a coworker who wasn't able to get a season pass. This year I got a season pass for me and I was able to take a copy of my marriage license to the ticket office and get a season pass for my husband as well. So Saturday was the opening game. My friend Dana offered to watch Mimi for us. I was nervous--and not nervous that Dana wouldn't be a good sitter, I was nervous FOR Dana, because Mimi turns into "Mimi the Miserable" around 8pm until she finally goes to bed between 10 and 11pm, and the game was at 7pm (about a 3 hour game). So I warned Dana of the appearance of "Mimi the Miserable," but she assured me she had seen worse. So we dropped Mimi off at 5:30 armed with a bouncy seat, bottles, clothes, blankets, diaper, wipes, etc etc...gosh kids have so much crap! We actually left the game early (after 1/2 time) because we were beating poor Charleston Southern 43 to 3, we grabbed a snack on our way back to Dana's and were there by about 10pm. Dana and her boyfriend looked a little frazzled, and really happy to see we were there to take Mimi the Miserable home I think! We'll see if Dana ever offers to babysit again! lol.

So, the other first...Saturday afternoon I found dug out the ol' running garb, grabbed a liter of water and some sunscreen and I hit the track near my house. Before I give you the details of my very short run, please remember that I just had a baby 7 weeks ago and haven't run since I was 5 months preggo. I set our to run 2 miles, which I thought might ease me back into the sport that I love but my body hates. Well let's just say I ran 1 mile (in 14:25 holy crap that's horribe) and it started to sprinkle. My joints ached, my chest ached (not to self bring inhaler next time), and I decided to throw in the towel. Some observations from my post-preggo run: Need a tighter sports bra and should definitely use the pump right before I run, need some new running shoes with some more cushion (my joints ached), and finally, even though i'm only 8lbs away from my pre-preggo weight, my body is far from my pre-preggo body! Before I fell pregnant (by the way I hate that expression, it makes pregnancy sound like an illness)I was actively trying (and succeeding) at losing weight. I have been overweight for awhile and had managed to lose 45 lbs in the 10 months leading up to our wedding. Shortly after we were married I became pregnant. I had been taking a combination cardio/weight training class 3 nights a week, plus running. I managed to keep this up until I was 5 months pregnant and got bronchitis and then asthma. Overall I gained 31 lbs in my pregnancy. When I was running I felt things "jiggling" I guess you would say, that never "jiggled" before. That in combination with the nice porn star boobs you get from breastfeeding, made the run feel a little funny. But, overall I feel really inspired to get back up to running my 2-3 miles 3 times a week, and eventually adding back in some weights too. I continue to lose the weight, about 1 or 2 lbs a week and I'm trying to eat healthy. Today I am letting my body rest (since I ran one mile then we walked a total of 3 miles to the stadium and back yesterdy), and tomorrow I'm going to put the shoes and sports braS back on and give it another go!

Time

I said to my husband yesterday as he was dropping me off on campus, I don't feel like there is enough time in the day. We were sitting in traffic, baby screaming in the backseat, both of us sleep deprived and he looked at me and said "I don't know if I want anymore kids." He later admitted he didn't mean it, but sometimes all the stress of being a parent to a newborn makes him think he wouldn't want to do it again. I know how he feels. You know when you have a baby that things are going to be rough, but I think both of us underestimated how truly difficult it would be.

Sleep deprivation obviously happens to both of you whether you are breastfeeding or not. My husband tends to be a light sleeper and one of those people, once woken up cannot go back to sleep. So even though I get up at night with our daughter, sometimes it wakes him up to, then he'll be off the entire day from waking up at 4 am and not going back to sleep. The sleep deprivation effects my stress level more than anything. When I'm rested I can handle "Mimi the Miserable" but when I'm not, I break down in tears sometimes at the stress of it all. I think the second most frustrating thing after chronic loss of sleep is the fact that there is no longer enough time for all other things in life. You slowly watch your house and your job fall to pieces, trying to catch up on the weekends from a week that went by so fast you couldn't even get laundry done.

Having my daughter has taught me to be more patient and lower my expectations. That was actually one piece of advice someone gave us "Lower your expectations." Accept that things won't always get done, life won't always be perfect, and overall you'll be a lot happier. I think this is somewhat true. I just take each day, one at a time, I do the best I can to be a good parent, wife, student, and friend. Some days I can do a lot, the house is clean, my daughter isn't covered in puke, there's food on the table and I manage to get some work done. Other days we're in our pj's till 2pm and I've had cereal for breakfast and lunch and dinner is looking like takeout.

When I kiss my daughters fat little cheeks and hear her coo, and I watch my husband talk to her and give her kisses it makes all the crap, all the stress, hell and all the money worth it!

I put up a photo of Mimi laying in the bathroom before her bath. She seems really happy to stare at the shower curtain and kick her legs. This last about 5 or 10 minutes. The other photo is her in her Halloween onesie that probably won't fit by Halloween!